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 | "The Logic of Intuition" |  |
| Complete Right Brain dominance can form a personality that may be wildly creative but socially dysfunctional. Feelings take precedence over thinking, with the result that, while such persons may have an attractive personality, they are frustratingly difficult to have dealings with. They often have a tendency to adopt illogical belief systems and can be seen as irresponsible, their unthinking actions causing pain to others. It is far from true to say that they cannot think, only that thought becomes the servant of emotion. As in most things, the ideal position is one of balance. This does not imply that both brains should be brought to bear, in equal proportions, for every situation. The purchase of a piece of machinery requires logical analysis; the colour of a new car has nothing to do with its functionality. Likewise, appreciation of a beautiful sunset is no way improved by the knowledge that, due to the great distances involved, the light and colours that we enthuse over, have only just arrived from a sun that, to all intents and purposes, set below the horizon eight minutes earlier. It must be stressed that neither way is 'better' or 'worse' than the other. Problems tend to arise when there is an imbalance, information being processed almost entirely by one brain, to the virtual exclusion of the other. The ideal is the ability to switch from one mode to another, availing oneself of a judicious mixture of interpretation by both brains at the same time. It is common-sense that we take time to understand how we function. We are attempting to make changes in the processes of a superbly complex organism that has been 4,000,000,000 years in its development. Four thousand million is a number far beyond the intellect's ability to comprehend. Try converting time into distance. The smallest, useful distance in common usage is the millimetre. |
To get a picture that our minds can grasp, we can make a scale on which each year of our evolution can be represented by 1 millimetre. Divide the time by 1,000, thereby reducing each 1,000 year span to 1 metre of distance. 4,000,000,000 / 1,000=4,000,000 metres.=4,000 klms.(2,500 miles) Nowadays, an average life span is 75 yrs. On our scale this is equal to 75mm.(3"). So it can be seen that humanity has evolved over a 2,500 mile journey, and that for each of us this means we are here for only 3" of the way. During that 3" trip we are attempting to change the habit patterns built up over the preceding 2,500 miles; and nature is very conservative. But it can be done!"Until as recently as 3,000 years ago, members of the group Homo Sapiens were virtually automatons, lacking a concept of self-fulfilment and a sense of the brevity of life, they heard voices inside their heads and called them gods. The gods told them what to do and how to act. Their minds were divided into two parts: an executive part called 'god', and a follower part called 'man'. When writing, and more complex human activity started weakening the authority of the auditory hallucinations, this 'bi-cameral mind' slowly broke down. The voices of the gods fell silent, and what we call consciousness was born." "Left/Right Brain", by Springer & Davis of the Universities of California and Alabama. 1993.They are referring, at this point, to the work done by the Princeton psychologist, Julian Jaynes. Jaynes supports many of his contentions by reference to ancient literature and history. He quotes the Iliad as describing a people who are not conscious. They do not decide to fight, and they do not plan strategy or do anything else without the intervention of a god or some other hallucination. "These auditory and visual hallucinations, occurring whenever a novel situation arose, show us the structure of the bi-cameral mind. Achilles, like all bicameral people, had a split mind. One part, the executive god part, stored up all admonitory experience and fitted things into a pattern and told the follower, or person part, what to do through an auditory hallucination.And; "Consciousness is learned on the basis of language, and taught to others. It is a cultural invention rather than a biological necessity.We now know that the brain is more plastic, more capable of being organised by the environment than we had previously supposed. We can assume that the neurology of consciousness is plastic enough to allow the change from the bicameral mind to consciousness, to be made largely on the basis of learning and culture. |
We are all affected by our pasts. We will understand nothing until we answer the questions about ourselves.